The former president of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont arrested in Sardinia

Carles Puigdemont

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24 September 2021 Former President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont was arrested by police upon his arrival at Alghero airport on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities for crimes against national public order and security. According to the newspaper El País, which cites legal sources, Puigdemont was transferred to the Sassari prison and the hearing is scheduled for the morning. The judge will have to decide "whether to release him or order his extradition" to Spain, writes the entourage of the former Catalan president in a note. Puidgemont's lawyer Gonzalo Boy also confirmed the news, spread by the Spanish media and immediately bounced on the international ones.

After the arrest, Spanish diplomacy took action by sending the honorary consul of Spain for the provinces of Sassari, Nuoro and Oristano, the lawyer from Alghero, Fabio Bruno, with the aim of verifying that the leader of Catalan independence is guaranteed the compliance with international rules. In Alghero, the only Italian city of Catalan culture and language, the independence leader had to participate in a meeting with the Sardinian autonomist movement and meet the president of the region, Christian Solinas, and the president of the regional council, Michele Pais.

On 30 October 2017 Puigdemont had expatriated to Brussels to escape arrest after the Madrid Public Prosecutor had accused the entire Catalan executive of rebellion following the referendum on 1 October 2017 on the independence of Barcelona. The former president had refused to return to his homeland to testify and the Spanish authorities had issued a European arrest warrant against him which a month later the Supreme Court had withdrawn, thus allowing Puigdemont to travel to internationalize his case. without however authorizing his return to Spain.

In March 2018, the Spanish authorities issued a new European arrest warrant against Puigdemont, who was detained in Germany while attempting to return to Belgium from Finland. Berlin releases him, but forbids him to leave the country. In July, a local court in Germany refuses to extradite the former leader on charges of rebellion and withdraws the measures weighing on him. Puigdemont returns to Belgium.

On 26 May 2019 he was elected European parliamentarian but was unable to go to Madrid to receive the official investiture, under penalty of arrest. In fact, Spain does not consider the Catalan leader to be an MEP, so it does not recognize his immunity which was instead recognized by the Strasbourg assembly on 2 June 2020. In March 2021, the European Parliament voted in favor of the revocation of the immunity of Puigdemont and on 30 July 2021 the Court of the European Union rejected the request for suspension of the waiver of parliamentary immunity to the former president of Catalonia and his former ministers Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí.

"There is no reason to believe that the Belgian judicial authorities or the authorities of another Member State can execute the European arrest warrants issued against MEPs and hand them over to the Spanish authorities", ruled the EU Court.

Now the arrest in Sardinia.

Attorney Boye tweeted that his client was handcuffed under an arrest warrant that would actually be "suspended".

The word now passes to the judges of the Sassari Court of Appeal.